He never knew how vilely those caitiffs had set upon you until I told him, and he always hated Bowerman ever after, and Bowerman returned his hate." This account had astonished Ralph. It seemed so surprising--so like a tale told by a jongleur. That he should have helped his relative, Yolande’s brother, and her own niece, in such an accidental way; that this should have led to his triumph at the tourney, and finally to the saving of his own life, seemed so like a romance, that he could not think it was all true. "And so that is your father, Sir George Lisle, and you are my cousin after all," said the young man dreamily. "Well, I shall believe it all, I dare to say, some day, but now I seem more in a dream than ever." "But here is father himself," said Magdalen, as the tall figure of the knight entered the room. Ralph would have risen and done reverence due to the rank and kinship of this man who had so mysteriously interfered in his life, since he left Thruxton without his knowing it. Sir George, however, forbade his moving, and greeted his young kinsman as kindly as his somewhat austere manner would let him. "So thou knowest all now, my young cousin. The next matter is to get thee safe to St Malo or Dinan, where I hear the Marechal de Rieux is holding out. Ah, the bad captainship of that old soldier! Had--but there, ’tis no use--’tis no use," broke off Sir George Lisle sadly, and almost fiercely. Magdalen tried to turn the conversation to other matters, but after several attempts she gave it up, and they all became silent.